We were invited to the press event for Thorpe Park Fright Nights last week and they certainly know how to put on an event as they blew the competition out of the water.
These press events are set up with some glitz and glamour and we have to distance ourselves from the free food and drink and get our review heads on as we headed into the brand new scare maze for 2024 named Dead Beat.
Dead Beat is located in the old Black Mirror Labyrinth building and what a transformation they have made, the place is entirely unrecognisable and more effort has been made inside this temporary Halloween attraction than ever was made inside the all year round Black Mirror attraction, it looks wonderful!
Now don’t get me wrong there are still a few black walls here and there with nothing added to them or painted on but for the most part Dead Beat is a very nice-looking and well-constructed maze which weaves in and out of a nightclub but what is Dead Beat actually about? If you haven’t read the below synopsis for the maze then you really wouldn’t have a clue.
Here’s what it says on the website
New for this year’s Halloween event! It’s two minutes to midnight, and the clock is ticking. Will you surrender willingly or dance the night away, embracing what may well be your final night on earth? But beware this is no ordinary venue—here, the music doesn’t soothe the soul; it devours it.
Now without reading this synopsis, it isn’t quite clear what is going on within this nightclub as one minute people are vomiting everywhere (there are smell pods aplenty) and the next minute people are dancing themselves into insanity whilst dark forces lurk in the shadows
So with storytelling a bit of a miss within the maze itself the atmosphere, the music the set-up of scenes and how you weave in and out of this crazy club is certainly a step up for Thorpe Park in terms of maze immersion.
Mazes such as Trailers have been tired, dull and quite frankly awful every season we’ve done them but there’s something in the water this year as Trailers has had new scenes and plays out very similarly to Slaughter Sinema 2 which we experienced at Halloween Horror Nights this year.
Stitches is also back with a bang and Survival Games is more intense and hands-on than I’ve ever experienced it before, they’ve gone all out this year to prove why they are Merlin’s jewel in the crown when it comes to Halloween events.
What impressed me with Dead Beat was just how mad it was and then a certain scene at the end that featured an almost Stranger Things like portal opened up and it really added to a quite impressive finale.
Many theme park mazes tend to fizzle out at various points throughout the walkthrough but Dead Beat was certainly in tune (please excuse the pun) when it came to delivering a solid and unique scare experience.
I look forward to experiencing the maze on a normal public operating day to make sure the same number of actors are featured inside as theme parks tend to dilute the number of actors in the mazes during quieter periods which ruins the experience for some but other than that, I was thoroughly impressed.
My heart still aches for Saw Alive to return at some point, the franchise is still as relevant as ever and having a Saw maze back here in the UK would be very special indeed!
Check out a walkthrough POV that we shot of Dead Beat during press night below:
Immersive and stark raving mad Dead Beat is certainly worth your time at this year’s Fright Nights Halloween celebration.
Find out more at https://www.thorpepark.com/explore/events/halloween-fright-nights/
